Posts Tagged ‘Ottawa’

The Liberal Party of Canada is back in power after a 9-year absence during the reign of the Harper Government. For the first time in 11 years, the Liberals have a majority government.

Canadians had the longest campaign — 78 days — in modern political history. The country wanted change, but had to decide between Tom Mulcair of the NDP or the Liberals’ Justin Trudeau. Though Mulcair and the NDP had the early edge, perhaps they got a little cocky. Trudeau took awhile to find his voice, but once he did, the Liberals rose in the polls.

Stephen Harper wanted nothing to do with the English language broadcast consortium debate. Tom Mulcair took the Conservative bait and said he wouldn’t be there if Harper wasn’t showing up. Mulcair made that decision when the NDP was doing well. By the time of the scheduled debate (which wasn’t cancelled), the NDP was in 3rd place. A chance to debate with all the non-Conservatives would have been valuable.

There were more debates than usual: 4 instead of 2. But that 5th debate would have helped the NDP.

If the GOP nomination process came down to knowledge about Canada, Romney would have clinched the nomination long before now.

Romney’s family spent many summers in Canada. The infamous dog story was when Romney took his wife and kids to Canada. Then again, John McCain traveled to Canada during the 2008 presidential campaign to give a speech in Ottawa.

Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner, including oil (even without the Keystone XL pipeline). We haven’t had much about foreign policy in the 20 GOP debates (other than attacking Iran), so we don’t know where the candidates stand on too many issues, other than the Keystone XL pipeline.

And those Canadian hate speech laws have a high tolerance: you have to go pretty far to be subjected to the laws. Not even Ann Coulter can hit those marks, so you know they are set high.

Coulter should have the right to spew her hate speech, but she doesn’t need to be on so many MSM outlets and have her views treated without objection. The soft standards she receives in the United States is likely why she is so upset in Canada. Then again, she will likely speak in Calgary, where her views aren’t as objectionable.

For a more detailed analysis on her speech and hate speech laws, check out my take from my other blog, Canadian Crossing.